Finding gold in repossessed home listings

A buyer’s dream house need not be brand new or built to specification.

There are a lot of properties that can be considered great finds in repossessed home listings. To find the golden deal among the thousands available, a buyer should first learn what to look for when it comes to repossessed dwellings.

Be ready to renovate

It is a fact that, in the majority of repossession cases, houses are not maintained in tip-top shape. This means that anyone who purchases them after they have been repossessed should be ready for a series of renovations and fixes. The trick is to find a property that entails renovations that will cost less than the amount of a regular house when these repair costs are added to the purchase cost of the repo home.

To save repair costs, a buyer should make sure that the foundations, the roof and the plumbing and electrical fixtures are in pretty good shape since these are the ones that will require a lot of money to fix. Another factor to consider is for how long the property has been posted in repossessed houses listings.

Determining offer price

When making an offer for a repo home, the length of time the property has been on the market will play an important role. The longer the home has been listed for sale, the better the buyer’s chances of getting it for a lower price. However, it also means that the property has suffered more damage than those that have only been recently listed.

Buyers should also be diligent in checking whether the property has been listed before, taken out of the list and put back again. This is a strategy that some realtors use to improve the list price of the property since buyers who do not have the patience to conduct a thorough research will just assume that the home is newly listed; hence, a higher offer is merited.

Another important thing to remember when purchasing a repo property is to consult the opinion of a licensed real estate agent. Having a reliable agent and having access to comprehensive repossessed home listings can get a buyer halfway to finding gold among the thousands of properties offered.

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